~ articles and trends for EA and other workforce professionals

Monthly Archives: February 2016

I love working with employee assistance professionals. They are courteous, insightful, highly intelligent, and understanding, which I suppose makes perfect sense for people working in one of the “helping professions”. I know firsthand about the good things that EAPs do in the workplace.

That’s why I’m often puzzled by the number of people I run into who don’t know what an EAP is or what it does. If you mention it as, “that 800 number you call for help at work” they have an idea what you mean, but even then just vaguely. I don’t think it needs to be that way!

“You must be visible and constantly raise the profile of EAPs in the workplace,” recommends Thomas McNulty, president of Success Stories, Inc. The following are some suggestions.

* Learn how you can become an expert on a workplace issue(s). As a former newspaper reporter I can attest to how much this tip can help. Media love having area professionals they can contact to localize stories on important workplace, behavioral, and related topics. Meet with local media and let them know you are available for an interview, comment, or quote when your area of expertise is in the news. Or what about writing a column for a local newspaper about important mental health and related subjects? The free exposure will raise awareness of both the EA profession and your individual EAP. It’s a win-win!

* Get on a local speaking circuit. Don’t get pigeonholed into only hanging out with EAP colleagues, McNulty stresses. Utilize Chamber of Commerce, civic groups (think Lions, Rotary, etc.) and others to raise awareness of an important issue or about EAP in general. In the former example, you can capture a great deal of attention by being seen as a reliable source of credible information. In the latter, you may be making people aware of EAP who wouldn’t have thought of using it.

* Network everywhere and with everyone. People frequently think of networking only at events such as Chamber of Commerce and professional association gatherings, like chapter and World EAP conferences. But some of the most productive business comes from chance encounters – at the grocery store, at ball games, doctor’s offices, etc. McNulty says it’s important to be alert to these possibilities, and be ready to explain the services that you offer. Do you have a “30-second elevator speech?” You never know when it can come in handy!

* Utilize social media. Some people are intimidated about getting involved in social media, and while it’s true that one needs to be careful of what you say…don’t underestimate how much many Millennials use these platforms to communicate. If you aren’t already using social media, contact a tech-savvy professional who can help you get started. You can’t start rowing if you’re not at least in the boat!

* If you don’t have one already, develop a presentation that is easy to understand, slick, and customized for the potential client. Your slideshow should be simple, according to business expert Shelley Plemons. “Stay away from confusing graphics, and don’t put too much text on the screen. Use bulleted points that are concise, and stay away from jargon.”

I realize there are EA professionals who are well-versed in marketing their program, and they should be commended. Other readers, however, should probably be doing more to promote awareness of their EAP. What is YOUR EAP doing? What points may have been overlooked in this post? I’d love to hear from you.

Since this week is the Call for Proposals deadline for this year’s EAPA World EAP Conference in Chicago, I thought it would be a good time to share some of the key findings (and practical experiences) I’ve learned about how to be a more engaging speaker. In fact EAPA is currently seeking engaging speakers to “articulate EAP ideas for 15-minute ‘EAP Talks’ to be recorded and made available to the public.” (Deadline for submissions is Feb. 19.) To learn more visit http://www.eapassn.org/2016Call.

But there is still no getting around the fact that because not all speakers are engaging, not all presentations are particularly noteworthy, no matter what conference it is that you’re attending. That being said I still believe that even if presentations aren’t an individual’s particular strong suit, it IS possible to get better at it. After all, we all know that a boring speaker is about as much fun as watching paint dry on the wall, and who needs that?

* Focus on a single idea. Many speakers make the mistake of overwhelming their audiences with too much information. Audiences simply don’t remember a lot of what we hear. Many studies suggest that we only remember a small percentage of what we hear – an estimated 10% to 30%. As a result, Nick Morgan, author of Targeted Leadership – Building a Team that Hits the Mark recommends focusing a presentation on a single idea. “Write that one idea down in one sentence, and paste it up on your computer,” Morgan suggests. “Then eliminate everything else, no matter how beautiful a PowerPoint slide it’s on, that doesn’t support that idea.”

* Practice, practice, practice. Public speaking doesn’t come easily for many of us, but there are scores of ways of gaining experience. I’ve been a lector at our church for a number of years, and I served as secretary and president of a local Lions club. Each of these endeavors helped me gain confidence in speaking before an audience. Like anything else, the more you do it, the more comfortable and better you get at it. Other possibilities include enrolling in a public speech class or joining the Toastmasters, a nonprofit organization that develops public speaking and leadership skills through practice and feedback. See http://www.toastmasters.org. These are great ways of finding out what other people think about your presentation skills before you jump on that plane off to your next destination and talk.

* Look at the big-picture rather than nitpicking over the small stuff. “Before you spend too much time worrying about the color of the next binder that holds your training program materials, take the time to make sure that the contents will add value to the learning process,” recommends Jim Hopkins, author of The Training Physical. Ask yourself honestly, if YOU were attending the training session, would the information interest you, or bore you? At a previous training, were participants listening intently – or half heartedly while multi-tasking on other things at the same time? If the latter is the case, obviously you have some improving to do.

* Consider adopting a blended learning platform. Every speaker needs to consider the platform that he or she will use in presenting his or her topic. PowerPoint is “okay,” but it’s often overdone. As noted earlier, bombarding trainees and employees with slide after slide and expecting them to retain everything isn’t realistic. But what to do? Cordell Riley, founder and president of Tortal Training, points out that many training programs are adopting a blended approach to learning by incorporating a combination of various levels of classroom, online, and mobile learning platforms. “This not only allows companies to develop multiple teaching tools inexpensively, but will provide them with added flexibility on how and when to conduct training,” Riley says.

* Don’t be afraid of cracking a joke or showing that you have a sense of humor. Many presenters make the mistake of being a bit too serious, when interjecting a little levity into a discussion can engage the audience and get them to see you as an honest-to-goodness person, and not a talking head that goes on and on. I recall one World EAP presentation I attended in which the subject matter could have, and probably would have been, quite dry with many speakers. But that wasn’t the case! In discussing the work that went into a big grant proposal, the individual (I know who he is, but I’ll reserve the right to be confidential), showed a picture of Brad Pitt, representing the young, bushy-eyed worker eager to launch into that proposal. Then, he showed an after photo of Albert Einstein, whose disheveled appearance lent one to think how worn out this same person was afterward! Talk about an ice-breaker!

What is Feeling Owed Syndrome, and what does it mean in the working world? The term stems from a caregiving article I ran across several years ago. It refers to people who feel “put upon.” In other words, they have done for others and in return have gotten the shaft. They have succumbed to Feeling Owed Syndrome (FOS).

Here’s an example. Let’s say you leave a grocery store and someone with their arms full of groceries is following you. As a courtesy you hold the door open for this person. We’ve all done this probably hundreds of times. Now, suppose that this individual that needed a little help walks through the door, and does not even bother to acknowledge your presence.

How would this make you feel? You probably wouldn’t be hostile or depressed, but you’d likely be annoyed. Why? Because you performed a service for that person, and they did not bother to give you anything back, not even a “thanks” or a smile or nod.

You’ve experienced an unbalanced relationship and you feel “owed”. This results in stress. Multiply this situation many times over and you have an idea of the stress experienced by caregivers.

I would add that I think FOS also applies to other professions as well. Let’s say your employer didn’t take you and your co-workers out for a holiday dinner as he’s done in some years past. Okay. Maybe he was busy, or maybe he just didn’t have the finances for a party. That happens. But now let’s say this has happened for several years running. Now the FOS is getting worse because the relationship between employee and employer is even more unbalanced.

Sound a bit petty? Let’s continue. Now let’s assume you haven’t had a raise in four years. Chances are it would bother you in year #4 more than it did in year #1 or #2. Again, the FOS has gotten worse. Let’s use a final example. Perhaps you received a bonus during a particularly good fiscal quarter three years ago. Yet again let’s assume there hasn’t been a bonus since then.

Now, in the bigger picture, we have a workplace in which employees haven’t been treated to a holiday party, a raise, OR a bonus for at least three years running. Chances are you felt annoyed the first year this happened…. Now? Like the person who walked through that door with their groceries who didn’t say “thank you”, you feel incredibly unappreciated because you haven’t received ANY of these fringe benefits you have received in the past. Possibly not even with a reason as to why. Wouldn’t your anger and FOS worsen with each passing year?

I am NOT a psychotherapist, but I’d be willing to wager that these are the types of work scenarios that lead many employees to “go postal.” Does your EAP offer periodic audit-type questionnaires or threat assessments to try to uncover troubled employees before they cause a physical or other disturbance in the workplace?

* Treat symptoms of stress seriously. Of course, workplace violence is at one end of the spectrum. Many other employees are unlikely of going “postal,” but they ARE highly stressed and it’s likely to cause rampant poor morale and lack of productivity unless something is done to counter the anxiety, anger, and other distressing feelings. Such individuals may wish to contact the EAP to see what can be done to reduce their stress before it gets any worse.

* Employees must distinguish between wants and needs. You need a job to pay bills and put a roof over your head, but do you need an office get-together, or do you want one? You’d love to get a quarterly bonus for a change (a want), but do you need it to pay your bills? Needs must be met, but not the wants. Yes your employer was probably a jerk in not explaining why these “fringies” were taken off the table, but ask yourself if the stress, worry, and elevated blood pressure is really worth it over things you can’t do anything about anyway? Separating wants from needs can reduce FOS.

* Negotiate with your boss to unload stress and FOS. FOS revealed that you are unhappy on the job – probably underappreciated. But what does appreciation mean to YOU? More money? Profit-sharing? Another staff member to reduce your workload? Additional vacation? More professional advancement opportunities? A pat on the back more often? Offsetting FOS and putting some balance back into the employer/employee relationship can involve lots of things, but YOU have to decide what it is that you want from the job – not just acknowledging what you don’t want or are missing. You won’t be able to negotiate everything to be sure, but you won’t know what IS possible if you don’t talk to your EAP and employer about it. You know the saying: “You can’t keep doing things the same way and expect different results.”

* If all else fails, look for another job. At this point, it might becoming clear that your FOS wasn’t quite as bad as you thought. Deep down you like your boss, and after he revealed the fiscal hardships that led to him taking away some “fringies,” you just might be at least a little happier and less stressed. Or, if good explanations for these actions aren’t coming to light – maybe he really doesn’t appreciate you! –it could be time for another job. But either way, you had to find out where you stood.

In summary, any employee/employer relationship is tilted toward the boss to be sure, but employees need to recognize the existence of FOS, and be aware that they will be increasingly unhappy and unproductive workers if something isn’t done about it. Such feelings can even get out of hand to the point of violence.

After Sunday’s BIG game the NFL season will be over until practices start up again in July. But that’s only true for fans. During every off-season the coaches and general managers of the league’s 32 franchises face crucial decisions about what new player personnel they should acquire from the collegiate draft, free agency, and via trades with other teams.

The selection of the right players – adding the best “pieces to the puzzle” – just might mean the difference between a Super Bowl victory in February and a losing season that’s over in December.

Whether it’s an NFL team or a business, bringing in (and retaining) the right people is crucial to success. The following are some suggestions courtesy of Isaac Cheifetz, author of “Hiring Secrets of the NFL: How Your Company can Select Talent like a Champion”, Davies-Black Publishing.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct
Teams and organizations alike need to be on the lookout for the “team wreckers” that populate the sports and corporate worlds. The following are a few of them:

* Self-centered superstars – Businesses and teams that tolerate “superstars” who are personally productive but organizationally disruptive rarely attain championship performance. Employing individuals with strong character values such as teamwork is important. The interview process, in which coaches and general managers seek revealing answers from their questions to potential draftees, has taken on increasing meaning in an age when erratic behavior, violence, and drug use is common among NFL players. Interviews have always been important in business, but in either case the key is to not draft (or hire) the person to begin with. No team or business can eliminate this risk, but with effective interviewing and background checks, one can at least minimize bringing in these team wreckers. If your corporate client already has a “superstar performer” on board, they should ask themselves: Is this individual, even if he or she brings in a lot of business, worth all the disruption and tension he/she brings in to the workplace? Chances are, “the tablespoons of honey [from sales] isn’t worth all the ladles of vinegar [all of the negativity they are poisoning the workplace with].”

* The morally challenged – Morally challenged individuals are likely to act on their worst instincts at some point. Even if they miraculously don’t negatively influence others, can they be watched all of the time? How much time and energy will that take? Organizations led by immoral leaders may succeed for a time, but in the long run it will be seriously damaged by unforeseen events. But it is very difficult to reform an unethical employee or manager later on. It’s preferable to establish an ethical business culture and demand that ethical standards be upheld from the beginning.

* The backstabber– Backstabbers are competent, but they love to subvert their peers. In a corporate setting a skilled backstabber can cut with the dexterity of a surgeon. A company can make its culture less hospitable to backstabbers by putting results above all else. This will provide less cover to individuals who compete politically. Backstabbers will then migrate to companies whose cultures are more receptive to their manipulative behaviors.

* The situation team wrecker – The situational team wrecker will act badly in a culture that is used to losing, but will be productive and loyal if transferred to a stable, winning organization. An example of this is Corey Dillon, whose moodiness as a star running back on a terrible Cincinnati Bengals team some years ago disappeared once he was traded to the New England Patriots, where he helped them win another Super Bowl. But beware: in business or in football, situational team wreckers should be presumed guilty until proven innocent. Even if they are well-intentioned, they are expressing themselves childishly and are not going to lead the organization from losing to winning. To succeed, they will require an already stable organization.

While using football as a metaphor for business has its limitations, to sum it up, it’s about how to build champions, and that’s true in football and in business.